faith

BECOMING a CATHOLIC

BECOMING a CATHOLIC on May 25, 2024

If any soul eternity understands,

Then let a Rosary ever be in its hands.

A reader of these “Comments” who is obviously not Catholic asks how to become one. It may be a question that interests more than just this reader. May Almighty God bless all such readers, because it is surely a grace of His that is prompting them to take a serious interest in joining the one true Church that is His – the true Roman Catholic Church. Today one has to add the adjective “true” because of course the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) fabricated a whole false Church designed to lead souls to eternal Hell instead of eternal Heaven. This can only complicate today the question of how to join the true Church, but if a soul is honestly searching for it, God has countless ways of reaching that soul with all help needed, despite any roadblocks thrown in His way by misguided or delinquent men. Let such a soul trust that God wants to bring him or her to Heaven, and He needs only the on-going cooperation of that soul to succeed.

Being a Catholic is about getting to Heaven, which is the uninterrupted supernatural bliss, intrinsically far above and beyond all our natural powers of mind and will as human beings. The bliss consists in the supernatural vision of God as He is in Himself and not just as we can glimpse Him from His natural creatures which surround us in our brief life on this earth. The gateway to this bliss is God’s supernatural gift of Faith, which reaches far above our natural reason. Whether or not I receive from God this gift of His, basic to eternal salvation, depends entirely on Him and not on me, but on the other hand there is an old saying to the effect that to whoever does all that it lies within his nature to do, God does not deny His (supernatural) grace. This is a kind of common sense, but beware, Faith remains, essentially, God’s free gift. What I can do, once I realise how indispensable for salvation is the gift of Faith, is bend all my powers to ask Him in prayer to give it to me. (It can be highly recommended to pray the Rosary even if someone does not yet believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary is and was the Mother of God. She will step in . . . )

What I can also do is to apply all my reasoning faculties to examining three great propositions which I can accept by mere (but upright!) human reasoning. If I do so, they can definitely help God to give me the gift of Faith, but they cannot, just by themselves, pull down God’s gift, which remains His free gift. As the half-believing sinner said in the Gospel, “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.” He may have been no theologian, but he was talking Catholic sense (Mark IX, 24). These three propositions are, 1) God exists, (2 Jesus Christ was and is God, and 3) The (true) Roman Catholic Church was instituted by Jesus Christ.

1) God exists – the most obvious argument from His creatures (as from effect to necessary cause) is the argument from intelligent design. The intelligence is visible everywhere in His creation, but it cannot come from the creatures which are themselves unintelligent, like animal, vegetable, mineral. Just one example – no spider ever steps on the sticky parts of its own web! Only the spider’s victims do that.

2) Jesus Christ is and was God – during His life on earth, He worked numberless miracles which God alone can work, because the Author of Nature alone can interrupt at will the normal course of nature. The raising of Lazarus (see Jn. XI) was a stupendous miracle wrought directly in front of a largely hostile crowd. Relics of Our Lord revealing to modern science traces of His DNA show evidence of His human mother but none of any human father. Indeed He was born of Mary, but conceived by the Holy Ghost.

3) Jesus Christ instituted the (true) Roman Catholic Church and no other. Mankind’s history shows all other “Christian” denominations to have started centuries after He lived on earth (1–33 AD). As for all non-Christian religions, they all deny that He was God, Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. All such religions cannot be true, and if like Vatican II they pretend that they can still be a way to Heaven, they lie again, because there can be no place for lies in the true God’s true Heaven.

If after working over these three preliminary truths, a soul still wishes to become Catholic, then it goes to see a Catholic priest to ask to be baptised, which is the normal way of entering the Church.

Kyrie eleison

PUTIN SPEAKS

PUTIN SPEAKS on March 9, 2024

An honest man has little or nothing to hide.

But who can talk like this on the Western side?

On February 6 last a famous and decent American journalist interviewed President Putin of Russia, heavily and steadily blackened in the vile media of the West, bravely giving Putin a chance to present his case to a Western audience. The selection below is less than 5% of the interview’s original length –

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, we were promised that NATO would not expand eastwards. There have now been five waves of expansion. In 2014, there was a coup d’état in Ukraine supported by the US. Ukraine launched a war in Donbass with the use of aircraft and artillery against civilians. They created a threat to the Crimea which we had to take under our protection. Then the current Ukrainian leadership declared that it would not implement the Minsk Agreements, signed after 2014, where a plan for the peaceful settlement of Donbass was set forth. More recently, former leaders of Germany and France said openly that they indeed co-signed the Minsk Agreements, but never took them seriously. For us not to have reacted would have been culpable negligence. It was the Ukrainians who started the war in 2014. Our goal now is to bring it to an end.

We did not refuse to talk. We negotiated with Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 and Davyd Arakhamia, who led Ukraine’s delegation, even put his preliminary signature on a peace treaty. The war would end if Ukraine dropped any aspiration to join NATO. Arakhamia publicly stated that Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister of Britain, came to Kiev and dissuaded Ukraine from doing this. Johnson said that it was better to fight Russia and not sign any agreement. As for NATO, they are trying to intimidate their own populations with an imaginary Russian threat. Thinking people understand perfectly well that this is a fake. We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. These are horror stories to extort additional money from US and European taxpayers. It goes against common sense to get involved in some kind of global war that will bring all mankind to the brink of destruction.

Did NATO/CIA blow up the Nord Stream pipeline in 2022? Yes. Whoever did it must have had not only a sufficient motive for destroying the pipeline, but also the necessary capabilities. There may be many people interested in ending Nord Stream, but not all of them can go to the bottom of the Baltic Sea to carry out such an explosion. So why not make propaganda out of this crime of the West? In the war of propaganda, it is very difficult to defeat the USA, because they control the world’s media.

The dollar is the cornerstone of US power. However, even the United States’ allies are now downsizing their dollar reserves. Until 2022, US dollars accounted for approximately 50% of Russian transactions with third countries, while currently it is down to 13%. This is because the USA decided to restrict our transactions. I think this was complete foolishness from the point of view of the interests of the USA, damaging the US economy. Why did the United States do this? Self-conceit. They thought it would lead to a full collapse of Russia, but nothing collapsed.

A very significant date in the history of Russia was 988. This was the Baptism of Russia by Prince Vladimir and the adoption of Orthodoxy, or Eastern Christianity. The Russian state incorporated both Novgorod (northern Russia) and Kiev (southern Russia). There was a single territory, one and the same language and the same Faith. What is happening now is, to a certain extent, something of a civil war. The West thinks that the Russian people have been split by hostilities forever. No. Russians will be re-united. Relations will be re-built. It will take time, but they will heal.

Could Tucker Carlson now go to the real policy-makers of the West and obtain an equally open account of their drive to subjugate the entire world? One may doubt it. To start with, who are those real makers of Western policy, and not just their public puppets?

Kyrie eleison.

Using Faith in our life to advance.

Using Faith in our life to advance. on December 20, 2016

Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh, my soul. While I live, I will praise Yahweh. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist. Don’t put your trust in princes, each a son of man in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God: who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners. Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous. Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down. Yahweh will reign forever; your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise Yah!

Virgin Mary’s Story

Virgin Mary's Story on December 20, 2016

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. LORD, open my lips. My mouth shall declare your praise. For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

Feed your Soul, pray with your Heart.

Feed your Soul, pray with your Heart. on December 20, 2016

Praise waits for you, God, in Zion. To you shall vows be performed. You who hear prayer, to you all men will come. Sins overwhelmed me, but you atoned for our transgressions. Blessed is one whom you choose, and cause to come near, that he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea; Who by his power forms the mountains, having armed yourself with strength; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid at your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy. You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows. You level its ridges. You soften it with showers. You bless it with a crop. You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance. The wilderness grasslands overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness. The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.

How to engage in Church Charities

How to engage in Church Charities on December 20, 2016

Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering. Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind. For your loving kindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth. I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh; that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard, and tell of all your wondrous works. Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells. Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men; in whose hands is wickedness, their right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me. My foot stands in an even place. In the congregations I will bless Yahweh.